The Holy Spirit

Memory
Text:And I will pray the Father, and He will
give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever(John
14:16, NKJV).

Of the three Persons of the Godhead,
the Holy Spirit is the
least understood. It is ironic that the Person who is closest to us,
the Being who produces the new birth in us, who dwells in us and
transforms us, is the One we know so little about.

Why? To begin with, the Bible is less explicit regarding the
Holy Spirit than it is about the Father and the Son. There are many
references to the Spirit in Scripture, but most are metaphoric or
symbolic. The Bible gives us ample information about the work of the
Spirit, but it says little about His nature.

Another reason arises from the ministry of the Holy Spirit. He
is constantly trying to focus our attention on Christ, not on His own
Person. In the plan of salvation, the Spirit plays a subordinated role,
serving the Father and the Son, although this function does not imply
inferiority in essence.

This week, as we listen to what Jesus taught about the Spirit,
let us eagerly pray for His transforming presence in our lives.

*Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, July 19.

Sunday July
13

The Representative of Christ

With fear and sadness, the disciples listened as Jesus
announced His imminent death. When they were deprived of His presence,
who would be their Teacher, Friend, and Counselor? Knowing their
desperate need, Christ promised to send His representative to be with
them.

What
particular name did Christ use for
His representative? See John
14:16-18. In what sense was that name
so appropriate? See also John
14:26.

Helper, Counselor, and Comforter are various translations of
the Greek parakletos, which is made up of the
preposition para, beside, and
the adjective kletos, called.
It literally means one called to the side of,
giving the idea of a person summoned to one’s aid.
It may refer to a mediator, an intercessor, a helper, an advisor, or
even a legal advocate.

Only John uses the term parakletos in the
New Testament. Interestingly, he also applied this word to Jesus
Himself (1
John 2:1).

During His earthly ministry, Christ was the disciples’
Counselor, Helper, and Comforter. Therefore, it is quite appropriate
for His successor to receive the same name. The Holy Spirit is sent by
the Father at the request of the Son, and in the name of the Son (John
14:16, 26). The Spirit continues
Christ’s work on this earth.

Through the Holy Spirit the disciples had the presence of
Jesus. I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you(John
14:18, NKJV), said the Lord. He was
not talking about paying them an occasional visit, which wouldn’t be of
much comfort to helpless orphans. Rather, He was
announcing a permanent and intimate relationship: I in you(John
14:20, NKJV). This was going to be
possible only through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

Of course, Christ’s human nature hindered Him from being
personally in every place at the same time. The Holy Spirit, on the
other hand, is omnipresent (Ps.
139:7). By the Spirit, our Savior is
accessible to all, independent of where they are or the physical
distance that separates them from Christ.

In what ways have you experienced
the reality of the Holy Spirit, even though His nature and how He works
in our lives is not easy to understand?

Monday July
14

The Holy Spirit Is a Person

Ellen G. White wrote that the nature of the Holy
Spirit is a mystery. Men cannot explain it, because the Lord has not
revealed it to them. . . . Regarding such mysteries, which are too deep
for human understanding, silence is golden. -The
Acts of the Apostles, p. 52.

Nevertheless, she also affirmed that the Holy Spirit
is a person, for He beareth witness with our spirits that we are the
children of God. . . . He must also be a divine person, else He could
not search out the secrets which lie hidden in the mind of God.
— Ellen G. White, Evangelism,
pp. 616, 617. This
statement was based on the Bible (Rom.
8:16 and 1
Cor. 2:10-11). So, although we are
limited by our human nature, through the Scriptures we can at least
know that the Holy Spirit is a Person and that He is Divine. What Jesus
said about the Holy Spirit confirms this conclusion.

Jesus mentioned several activities the Spirit carries out, all
of which imply a personality. Who better than a person can teach us and
bring to our remembrance all the things that Christ said (John
14:26)? Or who better than a personal
being can testify of Jesus (John
15:26), convict the world (John
16:8), guide us into all truth, and
also hear and speak (John
16:13)?

Because the Holy Spirit is a divine Person, we must humbly
surrender ourselves to His will and guidance. We will invite Him to
dwell in our hearts (Rom.
8:9), to transform our lives (Titus
3:5), and to produce the fruit of the
Spirit in our characters (Gal.
5:22-23). On our own, we are helpless;
only through His power working in us can we become what we have been
promised in Jesus.

The Holy Spirit is a gift; like
most gifts, it can be rejected. How can you make sure, day by day, that
you are not turning away from what the Holy Spirit seeks to do in your
life?

TuesdayJuly
15

The Holy Spirit Is Divine

When Jesus introduced the Holy Spirit to the disciples, He
called Him another Helper (John
14:16). The Greek word Jesus used for another
is allos, which means another of the same
kind, in contrast with heteros, another
of different kind or quality. The same likeness of nature
that bonds the Father and the Son is revealed in the relationship
between the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Jesus said that the Holy Spirit will tell you things
to come(John
16:13, NKJV). Only a divine Being can
announce the future (Isa.
46:9-10).

The divinity of the Holy Spirit is also attested by His role
in the inspiration of the Scriptures, a function that Jesus explicitly
acknowledged. He argued that David himself said by the Holy
Spirit(Mark
12:36, NKJV) what is recorded in Psalm
110:1.

While on this earth, Jesus was constantly under the direction
of the Holy Spirit. After being anointed by the Spirit in His baptism (Matt.
3:16-17), He was led by the
Spirit into the wilderness(Luke
4:1, NKJV). Victorious over the
tempter, He returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee
to carry on His ministry (Luke
4:14, NKJV). The miracles He performed
were done through the Holy Spirit (Matt.
12:28). The fact that the Son of God
depended on the Spirit is another demonstration of the divine character
of the Spirit, for it’s hard to imagine the Son of God dependent upon
anything less than the Divine.

Further evidence for the deity of the Spirit lies in His
association with the Father and the Son in texts that mention the three
Persons as equal. Thus, Jesus commissioned the apostles to baptize the
new disciples in the name of the Father and of the Son and of
the Holy Spirit(Matt.
28:19, NKJV).

How
do the following verses help us to
understand the divinity of the Holy Spirit? See Matt.
12:31-32.

The comparison between speaking against the Son of Man, a sin
that may be forgiven, and speaking against the Holy Spirit, a sin that
cannot be forgiven, shows that the Spirit is not a common being.
Blasphemy is a sin committed directly against God. Thus, we conclude
that the Holy Spirit is one of the three Persons of the Godhead. Though
much has been written about the unforgivable sin,
the immediate context shows people so hardened against the Spirit and
His role in salvation that they attribute His work to the devil!

WednesdayJuly
16

The Work of the Holy Spirit

We have already mentioned the important role of the Holy
Spirit in the life of the incarnated Christ and in the inspiration of
Scripture. Let us focus now on what Jesus taught about the Spirit’s
work for our salvation.

What
indispensable work does the Holy
Spirit do in order to prepare us to accept the Savior? See John
16:8.

Who takes their medicine unless they acknowledge that they are
sick? By the same token, we cannot be saved unless we recognize that we
are sinners. Softly but steadily the Holy Spirit convinces us that we
have sinned, are guilty, and are under the righteous judgment of God.

Then the Spirit guides us to Christ, testifying about Him (John
15:26), the only One who can save us.
Since Jesus is the truth (John
14:6), by taking us to Jesus the
Spirit is also taking us into all truth(John
16:13). It could not be any other way;
after all, the Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of truth(John
14:17).

Once we are convicted of sin (which implies repentance from
our sins) and are directed to Jesus and His truth, we are ready for the
Holy Spirit to do His greatest work.

Those who have tried to reform their lives by themselves know
how futile their efforts are. It is impossible for us, without divine
intervention, to transform our deteriorated sinful lives into a new
being. The regeneration of a sinner requires the kind of creative power
that only the divine Holy Spirit can provide. We are saved through
the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit(Titus
3:5, NKJV). What the Spirit does is
not a modification or improvement of the old life but a transformation
of nature, the creation of a new life. The results of such a miracle
are clearly visible and constitute an irrefutable argument in favor of
the gospel.

The operation of the Holy Spirit is not necessary only at the
beginning of our Christian life; we need Him constantly. To foster our
spiritual growth, He teaches us and reminds us of all the things that
Jesus taught (John
14:26). If we allow Him, He abides
with us forever as our Helper, Comforter, and Counselor (John
14:16).

Bad character habits are hard to
change, are they not? And
even when we stop, unless constantly vigilant, we can be overcome by
them again, as well.
What should our inherent
weaknesses and propensities to sin tell us about our constant need to
be surrendered to the Holy Spirit?

ThursdayJuly
17

Filled With the Holy Spirit

No doubt, it is important to know who the Holy Spirit is. But
this knowledge would be pointless unless it leads us to completely open
our lives to be filled with Him. Jesus made it clear that if we fail to
invite the presence of the heavenly Guest to abide in us daily, there
is another kind of spirit that is eager to enter into the empty life
and produce a spiritual disaster (Matt.
12:43-45). Jesus Himself was filled
with the Holy Spirit(Luke
4:1, NKJV). Daily He
received a fresh baptism of the Holy Spirit. — Ellen G.
White, Christ’s
Object Lessons, p. 139.

What does Luke
11:9-13 tell us about the way we may receive the
Holy Spirit? What do these verses show us regarding the Father’s
willingness to give us the Holy Spirit?

At the Last Supper, Jesus promised His disciples that He would
send the Holy Spirit. He emphasized the Spirit’s comforting and
teaching ministry, which was to meet their need at that time. After
Christ’s resurrection, however, the context was different, and the
disciples faced new challenges.

What
was the focus of Jesus’ promise of
the Holy Spirit after His resurrection? See Acts
1:4-8.

Acts
1:5 contains the only record of Jesus talking
about being baptized with the Holy Spirit(NKJV).
John the Baptist had announced this special baptism (Matt.
3:11, John
1:33), but it had to wait until
Christ’s ascension. What does baptism with the Spirit mean?

In Acts
1:8, Jesus Himself explained this with a
parallel expression. You are baptized with the Holy Spirit(Acts
1:5, NKJV)when the Holy
Spirit has come upon you(Acts
1:8, NKJV). To be baptized is to be
totally immersed in something, usually water. It includes the whole
person. Baptism with the Holy Spirit means to be totally under the
influence of the Spirit, completely filled with the Spirit(Eph.
5:18, NKJV). This is not a once
and forever experience, but is something that needs to be
constantly renewed.

If someone asked you, Have you
ever been filled with the Spirit, what would you
answer, and why?

At all times and in all places, in all sorrows and in
all afflictions, when the outlook seems dark and the future perplexing,
and we feel helpless and alone, the Comforter will be sent in answer to
the prayer of faith. Circumstances may separate us from every earthly
friend; but no circumstance, no distance, can separate us from the
heavenly Comforter. Wherever we are, wherever we may go, He is always
at our right hand to support, sustain, uphold, and cheer. —
Ellen G. White, The
Desire of Ages, pp. 669, 670.

The Holy Spirit was the highest of all gifts that He
[Jesus] could solicit from His Father for the exaltation of His people.
The Spirit was to be given as a regenerating agent, and without this
the sacrifice of Christ would have been of no avail. The power of evil
had been strengthening for centuries, and the submission of men to this
satanic captivity was amazing. Sin could be resisted and overcome only
through the mighty agency of the Third Person of the Godhead, who would
come with no modified energy, but in the fullness of divine power. It
is the Spirit that makes effectual what has been wrought out by the
world’s Redeemer. -Page
671.

Discussion Questions:

Given the human tendency to self-exaltation, what lessons
does the humble and subordinate operation of the Holy Spirit teach us?

In dialogue with Nicodemus, Jesus compared the Spirit to
the wind. What spiritual lessons may we learn from that comparison?

Some people claim that the evidence of being filled
with the Spirit is to be able to speak in what is commonly
referred to as tongues. How should we respond to
this claim?

We tend to think of the work of the Holy Spirit on an
individual, one-to-one basis, which is, of course, correct. At the same
time, how can we, as a corporate body, experience the reality of His
presence in our church as a whole?

Inside
Story~
Euro-Africa Division:
Czech

A River of Life

I’m a fourth-generation Adventist in the Czech Republic, the
second-most atheistic country in Europe. Going to church was part of my
life, like grocery shopping and eating. I enjoyed church because I had
friends there, but I didn’t have a relationship with God.

I had developed a rather twisted picture of God. Many other
young people did, too, and lots of them stopped attending church when
they enrolled in a university.

The Adventist Church leaders prayed for a way to reach
university-age people across the Czecho-Slovakian Union. God answered
their prayers with INRI Road, which means Jesus’ way.
It’s a program primarily for university students.

When I began my university studies a youth pastor invited me
to attend INRI Road. It’s like no church I’ve ever been to. Casual
weeknight meetings provide lots of opportunities to bond with other
students. The program includes Bible studies, of course, but we can
also join language conversation groups, sports teams, and other
activities. I continued going because I enjoyed the fellowship.

Mark, the founder of INRI Road and leader of the group in the
city where I am studying, asked me if I’d like to join the planning
team for INRI Road. I agreed. We were encouraged to try our outreach
ideas to see if they’ll work. And we have lots of smaller groups that
make up INRI Road.

For instance, an Adventist girl studying medicine invited
another Christian girl to pray in the stacks of the library. Others
joined them, and the group grew. They wanted a place to meet, and INRI
Road invited them to join. This is typical of the way INRI Road is
growing. Many members are not Adventists, but are friends.

I attend two Bible study groups, and the in-depth study we do
has opened God’s Word in new and amazing ways for me. I see how far God
has taken me in my walk with Him. I’m learning to rely on God for
everything. He is giving me opportunities to act on the lessons He’s
taught me, to share what I’ve learned with others.

I want to pass what I’m learning about God and life and
ministry on to others. I want to help others see that their lives are a
gift from God, a gift they’re responsible to give to others. This
realization has changed my life.

Last year INRI Road received part of a Thirteenth Sabbath
Offering to help expand the program to other university cities, to
train leaders, and provide resources that will bring other young people
to a knowledge of the Savior. Thank you for caring about the youth of
Europe.

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